1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to fault-tolerant systems and, more particularly, to a method and apparatus for facilitating device redundancy in a fault-tolerant system.
2. Description of the Background Art
Fault tolerant systems commonly provide redundancy among constituent devices. Redundancy is often provided for devices that are critical to the system. If a device in a fault tolerant system fails, the system will ideally “failover” to another device. For example, redundancy is often provided in internet protocol (IP) networks as such networks become critical resources in many organizations. A single router failure may prevent communication to and from each host and user connected to the router. In many IP networks, it is common to provide redundancy through the use of multiple routers such that a backup router functions in the event of failure of a primary router. This is accomplished through the use of a virtual router protocol, such as the virtual router redundancy protocol (VRRP) and the like. Of course, redundancy is employed in various other types of systems in addition to IP networks. However, present redundancy protocols are dependent on particular devices and systems. For example, VRRP is specific to redundancy for routers in an IP network. Accordingly, there exists a need in the art for a redundancy mechanism in a fault-tolerant system capable of supporting a diverse set of devices having potentially complex configurations.